French Ministry of Defense confirms: French special forces present in Syria

French special forces are present in Syria, Armed forces Minister Sylvie Goulard said on the radio station Europe1, on May 26, TASS news agency reported.

Goulard said that in Syria “we have special forces performing surgical operations.”

“France fully fulfils its role in the coalition. Our planes are there,” she added. The new minister sees her task in the French Defense ministry in “invigorating the existing forces.”

France – one of the few world powers, which openly called for the liquidation of the Syrian Arab Republic as such in its current form, while the United States and Britain called only for the resignation of Bashar al-Assad.

Military sources in mid-2016 had previously spoken of the French special forces’ presence in Syria, but officially it was confirmed only by Sylvie Goulard. She was appointed to the post of Minister of the Armed Services on May 17, 2017.